1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to systems and techniques for selecting seats for a ticketed event, such as sporting events (e.g., baseball, basketball, football, hockey, auto racing), a concert, movie or theatrical performance, television talk shows, award shows, speeches, religious ceremonies, graduations or an airplane, boat, train or bus trip. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method for allocating seats for a ticketed event.
2. Description of the Related Art
This section is intended to provide a background or context. The description herein may include concepts that could be pursued, but are not necessarily ones that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated herein, what is described in this section is not prior art to the claims in this application and is not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
A variety of different ticket reservation systems have been used to reserve and/or sell tickets for events, such as sporting events (e.g., baseball, basketball, football, hockey, auto racing), concerts, movie or theatrical performance, television talk shows, award shows, speeches, religious ceremonies, graduations or an airplane, boat, train or bus trip or any other event. Some reservation systems allow the purchaser to select the exact seat at the event. Other reservation systems select the purchased seats in the next available seats for a particular seating area or seating category, such as balcony seats, floor seats, or in the case of a baseball game, for example, seats behind home plate. Some events may have designated sections of seats which form different areas or categories of pricing for tickets. However, existing reservation systems can result in fragmented seating as reserved seats may surround a small number of unsold seats. Such isolated seats may be difficult to sell or reserve. This process potentially reduces the total number of seats that may be sold for the event. Further, the isolated seats may be close to other unsold seats and several such open seats could be sold to a group wanting to sit near each other. Current ticket reservation systems cannot identify such arrangements and potentially do not maximize ticket sales as a result.
In some situations, ticketed events are attended by larger groups of people wanting to sit near each other. However, due to the fragmentation of reserved seats, it can be difficult to identify groupings of multiple seats that are available for reservation. As such, larger groups of people either must purchase tickets for seats in less desirable, and thus more available seating areas or, alternatively, the groups must break up into smaller groups of people, or alternatively, not purchase tickets.
U.S. Patent Application No. 2004/0181438 entitled “System and Method for Dynamic Seat Allocation” describes a system and method for dynamic seat allocation. The system dynamically allocates seat assignments using a matrix having a plurality of available seats, a first seating arrangement using fewer than the entire plurality of available seats, the first seating arrangement based on a first seating request, a subsequent seating request, and logic for revising the first seating arrangement to develop a proposed seating arrangement to accommodate the first seating request and the second seating request. Nevertheless, this system and method may cause confusion because seat assignments are changing up until the event or a short time before the event begins, and potentially will not maximize ticket sales as a result.
U.S. Patent Application No. 2003/0069764 entitled “Selling Best Available Seats at a Public Facility” describes a virtual ticket control system that controls admission of customers to a public facility. The virtual ticket control system includes 1) a plurality of terminal devices disposed at entry points to the public facility, a first one of the terminal devices for establishing a communication link to a virtual ticket device used by a customer and receiving a virtual ticket transmitted by the virtual ticket device; and 2) a virtual ticket authentication controller for receiving the received virtual ticket from the first terminal device and determining if a unique identifier associated with the received virtual ticket matches one of a plurality of stored unique identifiers associated with a plurality of authorized virtual ticket records stored in a memory associated with the virtual ticket authentication controller. This system includes an option to purchase the best seat in the facility that remains unsold and available when the customer arrives at the event. However, this system also potentially will not maximize ticket sales because the customer does not know where his/her or seat will be until entering the event. Further, there is nothing that accounts for multiple seats for groups where the seats are proximate to each other but not necessarily in the same row.
There is a need to have improved systems for determining the best group of seats available at a ticketed event. Further, there is a need to identify ticketing opportunities where ticketed seats are contiguous but not necessarily in the same row. Even further, there is a need to expedite the ticket purchasing process to quickly assure customers buying groups of tickets that seats are located near each other and informing them of the location of their seats.